This invention relates to stringed musical instruments in general and more particularly relates to means for securing the tail end of a string to a tensioning member.
In the prior art it is conventional for guitars, as for other stringed instruments, for each string to have its tail end fixed and to have its head end inserted into an adjusting screw, and adjusting sound by appropriately tightening such screw.
Recently, so-called "one-touch" tuning techniques have been proposed. In accordance with such techniques, balls are provided at both ends of a guitar string which has been cut to a prescribed length. The ball at the tail or rear end of the string is engaged by a lever that is operable to stretch the string to a required extent to achieve tuning, at which point a releasable latch engages the lever to hold it in this position. For this type of arrangement generally see copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 830,068 filed Feb. 14, 1986 by Y. Hoshino and K. Matsui for Tailpiece of a Guitar, and assigned to the assignee of the instant invention.
According to this prior art technique, it was necessary to stock many strings of different lengths, the numbers depending upon how many tones were to be achieved and how many different instrument models were involved. This proved to be extremely costly.